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NEWS & VIEWS

17 March 2020

KISCH IP COVID-19 Contingency Plan

Dear valued Clients and Colleagues,

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has reached global proportions in a relatively short period of time and has quickly become a human crisis with an equally severe impact on business. As a consequence, President Cyril Ramaphosa took the unprecedented step of declaring a state of national disaster in South Africa with effect from 15 March 2020 - a first in the history of our democracy –click here for more details.

In line with the risk management procedure in accordance with our ISO9001 standard, KISCH IP has adopted and is implementing a business continuity and risk management plan ensuring the consistent delivery of professional services that have come to be expected from our firm and to minimise the impact of the pandemic on our firm.

KISCH IP is vigilant about the consequential effects of the virus and, as a company, the well-beingof our employees, clients and their families remains a top priority. It is with this in mind that the objective of the plan is further to take proactive and necessary precautionary steps related to the virus by focusing our efforts around empowerment, best practice, and compliance to all stakeholders in accordance with the global and local health regulatory authority bodies.

Another objective of the plan is to continuously and closely monitorthe situation and should we foresee our ability to conduct business changing in any critical way and/or if we are likely to experience delays in processes or timing as a result of the impact of COVID-19, to communicate regularly internally and externally.

Yet another objective of the plan is to ensure that our offices remain open, standard business practice continues unaltered and that we have suitable arrangements in place to ensure that our professional service will not be affected or interrupted, whilst caring for the health and safety of our staff.

A further objective of the plan is to prepare for a possible worst-case scenario, such as the entire office being placed in quarantine, and all employees being forced to stay at home.

At this time, our offices remain open, standard business practice continues unaltered and we have suitable arrangements in place to ensure that our professional service to you will not be affected or interrupted.

As currently advised, the offices of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) remain open and fully functional.

Please feel free to contact us should you require further information, have any concerns or suggestions.

Our thoughts and best wishes are with those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.